Encroachment from mankind and subsequent habitat destruction, often with the goal of resource extraction, poses a huge threat to these intelligent, arboreal great apes.

Orangutan Outcasts

In the jungles of Ketapang, West Kalimantan, an estimated population of 800 to 1000 endangered orangutans could lose their homes to big-money logging industry.

According to a BBC report in June 2018, timber companies considered ‘investors from Canada and China… building timber industries around th[e] plantation’ reason enough to begin logging in 2013.

Although there is a nearby orangutan rescue centre run by International Animal Rescue (IAR), they readily admit that they have no hope of accommodating 1000 homeless orangutans.

And the end products of the logging? Plywood, flooring and furniture, household items we buy without a thought of their source or the lives they destroy.

New rules from Jakarta have forced the logging company in Ketapang to cease operations because the area is peatland, protected by a new law and supposedly preventing logging even for existing operations.

The main reason for the ban is pressure from surrounding countries coupled with Indonesia’s own fear of the return of The Haze – it deserves capital letters because of its hugely damaging impact.

All of this is, or should be, good news for the largest orangutan population living in the wild. But what about other locations?

An International Problem

According to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), across the border in Malaysian Borneo ‘the rate of habitat loss has hit a new low in recent years’.

There are an estimated 1300 orangutans in Sarawak and about 11,000 in Sabah. Two decades ago the combined population was over 20,000, a reduction of 49 percent.

Wildlife sanctuaries, such as Lanjak-Entimau in Sarawak, and national parks have helped protect the orangutans from the encroachment of plantations.

There are of course natural causes for declining populations, including drought and subsequent forest fires due to the El Nino effect.

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